PI-4 (finally, with pictures)

got the photos off Andrea's camera last night. they aren't "all that", but it will give you an idea.

recapping:
2 pecan trees with respective poisonous vines. the first one i chopped up around Christmas time with a borrowed axe and ended up infecting my eyes, face and neck. here is what that vine looks like now. i wanted to include the ground in the first one for scale purposes:



this one shows how it forks off and what not:




the death tree i worked on a week and a half ago, which ended up infecting both my arms, neck, hands, etc., is here:




look at that! i've never seen such a disgusting display of poison ivy anywhere else, ever. that's insane. most of them were small enough to chop with lopppers, but the big tangle in the middle required chopping with a hatchet. that's what got me this time around.

i mentioned how there are branches coming off the vines several feet with giant leaves and flower clusters. check it out:



all the wilting leaves in the foreground are what i'm talking about. this was the day after, so they were already starting to die (YES!!). the branches are roughly 71/2 feet off the ground and between 5 and 8 feet in length.

here's another one where you can sort of make out the flowers. they're beautiful. to bad they're all dying, Andrea and i could've used them for our wedding:




sorry they're all so dark. the sun was setting and i wanted to get this documented before the leaves die and fall off. although, the wind storm i told you about caused a large number of leaves to fall off, which i had to rake up to keep Krust from tramping all over. here is the pile, with my shoe included for scale:



that's all i have, except for this one Andrea took on my way out to do the chopping with Kari's hatchet and machete. the only reason i include it is to point out the only place i was exposed (arms) are the only places i got it. imagine that! also, i like the look the dog is giving the camera.






i just viewed the post and noticed when you click on the pics, they get huge, which is good and bad, i suppose. i'm leaving them as is b/c you really need to zoom in to see what i'm talking about. and in looking at the dorky picture of me with the hatchet, i saw in the background something else: the tree in the background and all the poison vines it had sent out in all directions that i pulled up on Sunday:



i had to get those up before i mowed, lest i contaminate Jessica's mower to the point it would have to be condemned. plus, the ground would have been covered in poison juice, rendering it unusable. a superfund site, practically. all the vines you see on the ground were traced back to the trunk of the pecan tree. there's not much left to do but douse the severed trunks with Ortho poison ivy killer which we purchased from Home Depot recently. that will be fun, except now i'm scared of the giant red ants that live back there, too. can't win for losin'.

again, this was a hasty post and not my best work. not much worse than my best, but still: not my best. if you want to read quality, check out Dean or Andrea's blogs. if you want crap, keep checking back here.

Hurricane Season

yesterday, a storm system surprised everyone and formed 3 weeks before the official kick-off of Hurricane Season. it was crazy: i looked out the window at work and it was cloudless and sunny, the next minute, lightning and sheets of rain. then it repeated a few more times. the culprit behind all this precipitation? Subtropical Storm Andrea!

i thought that was funny, so i called up Andrea to let her know. her dad beat me to it. he also pointed out that our relationship is golden b/c her new initials will be AU, the symbol for gold on the periodic table. the best i could come up with was "Auburn University", my alma matter. so kudos to Les for being on the ball!

anyway, i thought it would be neat if this year there was a Hurricane Jerry, too. slim odds, i know. but i think i'm gonna go buy some lottery tickets today b/c after 20 seconds of internet research, i discovered the following:

2007 Hurricane Names

Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy

what's up??? that's pretty cool. there have been 3 Hurricane Jerry's before, the last of which i remember was in 1995 after Jerry Garcia died. (there was one in 1989 and one in 2001, also). i can't find any record of a Hurricane Andrea. so it's official: this is our year. or as Andrea said, "We're taking 2007 by storm!". when i suggested maybe it meant we are in for a "stormy relationship", she fired back, "no, it means we will 'weather the storm'". this could've gone on and on. she's good like that.

anyway, how many of you out there can say you married your spouse in the year each of your names was associated with a severe weather phenomenon? just us and our friends Humberto and Chantal. so eat that!!

PI-3

this will be a quick one since the poison in the yard hasn't tried to make a comeback...yet. this is more an update on the rash i got last weekend.

they say poison ivy rashes don't "spread", i.e., that scratching them won't make you break out elsewhere. everything i've read supports this: you break out in the areas you were exposed and the blisters you get are filled mainly with watery goodness, but not contagious juice. that being said, it seems to be popping up in new places on me.

i got a new patch on my left forearm, right forearm and right bicep! and this morning i see a little itchy bump on my left thumb! what's up? it could be that i am encountering remnants from the weekends work, like from my shoes or something. or maybe from a dog toy. who knows. maybe it's actually contagious.

i was sitting in my cube Monday or Tuesday and my spots were itching. i decided to "scratch" them without really scratching them by turning over a can of compressed air and blowing subfreezing compressed gas on a couple places. it was neat, but didn't help all that much. the skin froze and i gave myself a mild case of the frost bite, but in the end, i was no better off. i don't recommend doing it.

hopefully PI-4 will have more exciting news. better yet, hopefully there won't be a PI-4 b/c i will never have to speak of it again.

PI-2

follow up: we had a very windy day yesterday. i got to Andrea's after work to get ready for Home Group, which was at 7pm. me and Krust were playing in the back yard when i noticed them...the ground was covered with giant poison ivy leaves. the wilting leaves from the vine i severed Saturday were being blown off and scattered everywhere. good thing there's a brand new rake in the shed: i went to work piling up the leaves, being careful not to let them touch me. i photographed the pile next to my shoe (for scale). pictures are still on Andrea's camera, but i'll get them on here. when you see the picture, keep in mind i wear a size 13. it looks like a child's toy next to the mammoth pile of green death-weed. madness.

in other news, i can now verify 7 rash spots from the weekends work.

1. 1 big cluster - left "bicep"
2. 1 medium cluster - left forearm
3. 2 small clusters - left forearm
4. 1 tiny spot - left hand
5. 1 tiny spot - right wrist
6. 1 medium cluster - right shoulder/neck

it's not awful. next time i'll put on a long sleeved shirt. my mistake.

my friend Nancy at work asked a Botanist friend of hers whether my gasoline technique would kill the root system. the answer was no. the good news is there are special poison ivy killers on the market. using the same process with said killer will supposedly do the trick.

more info, and hopefully pictures, coming soon.

Poison Ivy!!!!!!

where to begin.

poison ivy is one of the banes of my existence. i hate it. it's one of the few material things i can honestly say that about. it does nothing but make me itch. or worry about itching. just talking about it makes me itch. i also hate ticks.

so i don't like poison ivy? join the club, right? it's more serious than that!! it's personal.

poison ivy grows pretty thick in North Carolina. i play my share of the disc golf, which means being out-of-doors. that equals bad news for my exposed body parts. i keep it in the fairway these days, for the most part, but back in the diz, i had to go hunting in the woods for bad shots. i got it so bad on my legs several years ago that i stopped wearing shorts. REI Sahara pants became the norm for me year round. and so it is today. i decided it wasn't worth the risk and changed my ways. but dealing with it on its turf is one thing. when it invades my personal property, that's something completely different. and so begins my story...

Andrea bought a house in Raleigh late last year. it was a great find: 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood and a great back yard. the yard needed some attention, but i was looking forward to getting on it. the sellers mowed and picked up the big limbs, but there was still plenty to do. lots of trash all over the place and broken glass. the glass collection is an ongoing project.

one of the things that caught my eye were 2 of the big pecan trees in the back. they both were home to very large, very healthy vines of some sort. one of the trees had a significantly larger vine system than the other, but both were quite healthy and old. they had been left untouched for years and years. how many, i could only guess (1,000?). i don't recall thinking they might be poison ivy right away, but for whatever reason, i came to suspect it.

Andrea's dad came over with some tools, so just before Christmas 2006, i began chopping one of the vines with an axe. it was like chopping down a small tree: wood chips were flying. with every swing, i was saying to myself "if this is poison ivy, it's the likes of which i have never seen!!". well, it was poison ivy, as my swollen face and watery eyes would attest days later. each flying wood chip that bounced off my face carried with it a large amount of urushiol which caused said puffiness and wateriness. it wasn't until i went home for Christmas that i got relief in the form of a steroid shot. looking back, i was extremely lucky. there are some nasty photos of P.I. rashes out there on the internet. there's no good reason my rash wasn't 100 times worse. thankfully, i now know i am not allergic. like most people, though, i am susceptible.

fast forward several months. instead of using an axe to take care of the other infested tree, i got a pair of heavy duty loppers. with these, i could sever the lifeline of each vine up to about a 9" or 10" circumference. that was all of them but 1. there was one big daddy roughly the size of my leg (below the knee) and i needed to do more chopping to take care of it. i borrowed Kari's hatchet (the neighbor), protected my face with a dust mask and a towel and headed into the yard. it was hot and trying to chop the fat vine with all that headgear on with a camping hatchet was tough. but i managed to get it done with minimal exposure. again, there were lots of wood chips, but this time i ran in the house after finishing and took a long shower, including wiping myself down with alcohol squares. even with the precautions, i was sure i was going to contract it again. not helping matters was the allergy attack i was having. i crawled into bed like a scared little girl and awaited the rash.

thankfully, it didn't come. the next day, Andrea was out of town, so i went back to her place to tempt fate yet again: the first vine i chopped, back in December, had sent out about 50 vines radiating outwardly from the trunk of the tree along the top of the yard in a last ditch effort to sustain itself. as old and huge as the vines were, i can only imagine how vast the root system is. if so, i may be dealing with this for a while. years, maybe.

i put the gloves back on and started pulling up vines. they varied in length from a few feet to as many as 20 or more. when i was done, i had quite an impressive pile. every time i felt a leaf touch me, i ran into the house to wash my hands. that happened 7 or 8 times. i was being overly cautious and i think it may have paid off. the yard is, for the most part, free of poison ivy and i only managed to contract it in about 6 or 7 places...a few spots on my left arm, my right shoulder, my right wrist. and maybe a little on my face and in my ear. i'm again very surprised and lucky i didn't contract it all over my face and neck.

my project now is to keep the vines off the yard by pulling them as soon as i see them. my theory is that without leaves, photosynthesis can't happen and the root system will die in the ground. how long will that take? a while. i'm hoping the gasoline i poured on the exposed root will bring death more quickly. no matter, i'm nothing if not patient. and next time i'll wear long sleeves.

i have pictures to include. i'll modify the post to include them when they're ready. i went looking for pictures online of nasty poison ivy, but nothing i found compared to what's in the back yard. nothing. i read how, when healthy and mature, the vines can have branches "up to 3 or 4 feet in length". the branches coming off the vine in the back are upwards of 8 feet or more. it's horrifying. but now, i am pleased b/c the leaves on those branches are already wilting. it doesn't take long for them to die. but as i learned with the 1st vine, the roots stay active and it's only a matter of time before it sends out the emergency shoots seeking to preserve its life.

with any luck, i'll be there to pull the plug.

Check the counter

if you have been paying attention, you saw the counter on the right was set to expire at midnight, January 1st, 2008. it will now expire at midnight on August 25th, 2007. this means 2 things: first, that on Friday, April 13th i asked Andrea to marry me and she accepted! the date was set for August 25th. second, it means i'm very slack about keeping this blog updated with pertinent information. you can read all about how it went down at Andrea's blog.

in fact, i'll go ahead and say if you want any information at all about what's going on in either of our lives, go to Andrea's blog. if you want to read my little rants about all things unimportant, check back here. but not too often b/c as i said before, i'm slack about updating.

we're both excited about our future together. our good buddy Geoff Wood took several pictures in the back yard, one of which we used for our "Save the Date" mailer. you probably already got yours. i hope i got your address right b/c i forgot to put return address labels on the ones i sent to my peeps. woops! invitations forthcoming.

speaking of invitations, my future Brother-in-Law, Dean Schuster, will be helping out with invitations. and by "helping out", i mean "doing them all by himself". thanks Geoff and Dean!

also, thanks in advance to everyone we haven't asked for help yet. your days of not helping are numbered!!